Mystery

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth ... when the morning stars sang together?" God asks in Job 38:4,7.

The movie Tree of Life opens with this quote and opens into yet another theme—timelessness. How do we wrap our thoughts around this concept when the mystery eludes us and yet it is a fact in our daily lives? Even when we attempt an answer it only leads to more questions.

The movie repeats cycle themes, clouds crossing the sky in time lapse, the birth of a volcano, the birth of a child; all are measurable, all are timeless and all keep us open to mystery.

Jesus raised similar questions in His parables. He began with daily measurable activities: sowing seeds, watching the weather, harvests—cycle of life. Then He pushed beyond the surface to share hidden truths. Powerful, creative, and life-changing insights. And the most common immediate response to these metaphors was, “How is this possible?”

The questions, the search, the curiosity all lead us into the mystery of living here and into hereafter. Nature wraps around our daily lives as beacon and somehow as a guardian. It is bound up with our ability to learn to see.

“For the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.” Romans 8:22 NAS

Nature—timeless—expressions of God’s truth—mystery—open to conversation.

Journal Prompt:

Make a list of nature metaphor or themes that reflect a sense of timelessness to you. Choose one for your character and write a brief vignette when he first experienced that connection.

Share: Two of your metaphors.

Memory

As we’ve discussed before memories are not always measurable according to facts. Our perceptions change with our emotional focus and we can often re-write them. Like a public eulogy or obituary we hone in on particular details and choose to keep them as our remembrance.

However the reality still exists and can break through to shatter our illusions. What we see as narrative shatters into splintered particles that lack purpose or direction.

In the movie Tree of Life, the story examines the conflicting memories of one son to his father. Sometimes his reactions appear to be shared with his brothers and at other times in complete contrast. Often the father showed extreme restraint towards this son’s emotional journey but then inexplicably over-reacted towards apparent surface issues.

A friend noted that, “The extended focus on beautiful imagery was initially arresting but then became expected and eventually laborious. I wanted the narrative to be more robust to stand up to the really significant and mesmerizing imagery in order to tie it all together in a cohesive way.”

Perhaps the movie’s intent was to leave the viewer to make their own connections and opinions, but instead left out too many real facts to engage that conversation. When we write memories into our own memoirs, or for our fictional characters, we need to both have an understanding of the root and why. Only then can we share honestly—especially when we bury parts of the story.

Journal Prompt:

           

Take an incident from your character’s past—perhaps childhood—and write it up from two opposite emotional perceptions. Then blend the two into your character’s memory. Can a viewer or reader tell which is the reality? If not, revise.

For example, a child remembers with fondness a special day at the fair with her father who soon after deserted the family. In reality, the father drank heavily and repeatedly put her in danger that day.

Share: What memory does your character refuse to see in its true light? Why?

Maps

“That said perhaps the movie reflects in its rawest form what it means to be human: we carry the disjointed memories of our life (often carried in pictorial form) with the slim thread of narrative (or understanding) that barely makes sense of it all. I find the movie more compelling when viewed through this lens but no more satisfying.” Mary Loebig Giles

This thought helps me understand better my difficulty connecting emotionally with the movie Tree of Life.  Map-making into our own personal history is disjointed enough and difficult to connect, let alone transfer comprehension to another.

Even when we connect with a similar experience the process of experiencing it and moving past it will be unique. Why does one child survive a harsh upbringing with compassion and generosity and another with rage and even more brutality? Perhaps even from within the same family.

Empathy helps us to share and yet there is still a distinct difference. We draw the maps, we name the local territory, and we highlight the routes taken. Yet we color code with different symbols, danger points, or rest stops.

And the surface pristine map we draw for the world to see may bear no reality to the chasms and ravines underneath silently waiting for the tremor that will split it wide open. Emotional map making needs a light touch and winds of mercy in order to communicate. It requires courage.

Journal Prompt:

            The movie focused on one character trying to map one particular stage of his journey with specific micro memories—often out of sequence—and without explanation.

            Take one stage of either your life or your character’s, say as a young teenager or new parent or first time driver, and make a visual word map as if you were placing photographs on a sheet of paper. Then connect them with colored pens to reflect routes and the corresponding emotions.

Share: Did one particular color or situation rise to the surface? Did it surprise you?